AN ARCTIC CHRISTMAS 123 



came, and when Ovayuak told him about my hankering 

 for salt he immediately went out to his sled and brought 

 in half a baking powder tin of it. At this I was over- 

 joyed and sprinkled salt liberally on my fish the next 

 meal. I was a bit disappointed to find the fish not as 

 much improved by the salt as I had expected. That did 

 not lessen my gratitude to Ilavinirk, and I thought that 

 for me this would prove the beginning of better times, 

 for used by me alone the pound or two of salt ought to 

 last for months. 



When the next meal came I was interested in some- 

 thing that was going on and absentmindedly ate the whole 

 meal without recalling till the end that I had put no salt 

 on my fish. This made me realize that my hankering 

 for salt had been in a sense imaginary. I had really been 

 without it long enough already to break myself of the 

 habit but had been longing for it because I imagined I 

 needed it. From that time on I never opened the salt 

 can, although I kept it with me in case I should want it. 

 A month or two later I lost it, nor did I worry at all 

 over the loss. 



It turned out that Ilavinirk was more than willing to 

 take me inland. He had just come from the Eskimo 

 Lakes country himself where he had been living less than 

 a day's journey away from Harrison's camp. He told 

 me that his camp was a fine fishing location if you got 

 there early enough in the fall. He had arrived too late, 

 however, and the fish run had been nearly over. He 

 caught a few fish and hunted caribou without success. 

 He had snared a few ptarmigan, but altogether it had 

 proved a difficult place to make a living and he had now 

 just abandoned his house to come down to Ovayuak's 

 to live on fish until the sun came back. He had, however, 



